Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/222

 Robert W. Service

And it seemed to come from the mouth of a pit Christmas ! sez I, a mine/

��Then ere s the part wot I can t explain :

I wanted to make for ome again,

But somethin was blazin inside me brain,

So I crawled to the trench instead; Then I saw the bullet ead of a Un, And e stood by a rapid-firer gun, And I lifted a rock and I it im one,

And e dropped like a chunk o lead.

&quot;Then all the Uns that was underground, Comes up with a rush and on with a bound, And I swings that giddy old Maxim round

And belts em solid and square. You see I was off me chump wiv fear, If I m sellin me life, sez I, it s dear/ And the trench was narrow and they was near,

So I peppered the brutes for fair.

&quot;So I eld em back and I yelled with fright,

And the boys attacked and we ad a fight,

And we captured a section o trench that night

Which we didn t expect to get; And they found me there with me Maxim gun, And I d laid out a score if I d laid out one, And I fainted away when the thing was done,

And I aven t got over it yet.&quot;

So that s the istory Bill told me.

Of course it s all on the strict Q. T. ;

It wouldn t do to get out, you see,

As e hacted against is will. But e s convalescin wiv all is might, And e opes to be fit for another fight; Say! Ain t e a bit of the real, all right?

Wot s the matter with Bill!

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